Beats Antique

Russ Liquid, Harold O'Neal

Beats Antique

Growing like wildfire under the canopy of live electronica and experimental world fusion music, the acclaimed musical trio Beats Antique launch their fall tour to finish out 2012 in support of their upcoming Contraption Vol. 2, a new cinematic, orchestral, and seductively bass heavy EP.

As the trio masterfully merges modern technology, live instrumentation, brass bands, string quartets, glitch, and dubstep, Beats Antique’s highly anticipated new album explores another octave of musings first begun in 2009 with Contraption Vol. 1. Three years and eight new original compositions later, Contraption Vol. 2 - will arrive on Tue 9.18.12 - to round out the collection.

With a stage performance containing more sensory indulgences than the most lavish genie’s lair, Beats Antique will indulge their fans to a raw, animalistic musical event that blurs the lines between the provocative, the spiritual, and the artistic while still maintaining allegiance to the muses of class and beauty. The tour, “Animale Mechanique”, will cover 35 locations in North America and end with a 36th once-in-a lifetime show in front of The Pyramids in Egypt on the Winter Solstice.

Having already enchanted audiences at Coachella, Lollapalooza, Bonnaroo, Red Rocks and beyond, Beats Antique’s live performances blend electro-coustic breakbeats set to a Bollywood bass-circus stage show, with the sophistication of top hats receding to a sea of animal masks and wild feather headdresses. Their ability to blur the line between artist and audience even before the curtain rises creates a total escape both through live performance and the album experience that leaves critics and fans reeling alike.

Consider “Allure,” the opening track on Contraption Vol. 2 – you are instantly transformed into a Moroccan special agent awaiting your next assignment from the haunches of a camel. And truth in the music is told as the acoustic and electronic indulge in one another until they can’t be told apart. This is best observed after listening to -- and not initially realizing the purely stark acoustics of “Crooked Muse” featuring LYNX effortlessly leaving behind electronic production entirely.

Listening to any of the four past albums and several EP's over the last five years, a deeper earthen anthropology begins to reveal itself. The journey that led to Beats Antique was a winding and twisted path from the West Coast and eclectic underground of San Francisco’s performance art scene, to the ancient trade routes of the silk road. In this modern incarnation, the musical alliance of producers David Satori and Tommy Cappel is inspired and emphasized by their collaborative partnership with world-renowned belly dance performer and music producer Zoe Jakes.

David Satori studied at California Institute of the Arts and Tommy Cappel studied at Berkeley School of Music before they ventured to locations such as Bali, West Africa, and Serbia. With extensive backgrounds in multicultural music production, and the passports to prove it, Satori and Cappel command the spectrum of live and digital instrumentation with skills born from Traditional Folk to Hip Hop and old school Jazz.

Zoe Jakes adds a third dimension as the diverse and disciplinary dance counterpart to Beats Antique’s sound. Jakes has worked with two major dance troupes, including Miles Copeland’s Bellydance Superstars and Rachel Brice’s Indigo Belly Dance Company, and is a student of ballet and contemporary techniques.

Beats Antique is best imagined as an innovative creature built from the cumulative heritage of the world’s music chasing its tail. However vivid that image, when a marching band groove crashes into bluesy folk chords only to be accompanied by electronic beats and Middle Eastern melodies, you’ll still be surprised and taken to a place you hadn't previously known existed.

Russ Liquid

Set apart from other up-and-coming West Coast bass music producers by his extensive world-touring history and performance experience, Russ Liquid brings a much-needed injection of melody and emotion to the thriving dance floor community.

Classically trained on the piano, trumpet, saxophone and flute, Russ Liquid spent his early 20's touring the Caribbean and South America as part of a jazz quintet, playing resorts, cruise ships and dance clubs. Once the young composer was introduced to electronic music, his course in life was forever altered, and he soon discovered a new home in the international electronic music community.

Hand-crafting sexy sounds by blending elements of many genres together, Russ Liquid applies the colorful tones of instrumental music to the realm of the beats with dance floor-rocking results. This talented producer has found an entirely new palette to "paint" with, and now he seeks to bridge the gap between classical and modern music with new electronic technology and sonic possibilities.

Ample chord changes, foreign sounds and grimy drums on a thick layer of bass give Russ Liquid's music a symphonic quality that hooks the brain with its unique twists and turns. A Portland native who has recently transplanted himself to Oakland, Russ Liquid has found success in the past half-decade performing throughout the United States and Canada with groups such as March Fourth Marching Band and Satori Social (Bluetech's live band). Now this eager artist and performer has stepped out onto his own, bringing a refreshingly melodic approach to the bass music movement.

Harold O'Neal

For Harold O’Neal, the emphasis is on the experience of the music, rather than the genre.
“Through my compositions and improvisations, most important to me is the hope to expand the
sonic awareness of my listeners and bring about a shared sense interconnection. At the end of
each piece, I want to leave them with the impression that we have travelled together, and that
they each have been an integral participant on this spontaneous journey.” Indeed, audiences
who have the pleasure of hearing Harold’s unique improvisatory impressionism performed live
routinely find themselves drawn into a marvelous fantasy.
Born in Arusha, Tanzania to an American father and a Tanzanian mother, O’Neal moved to
Kansas City, Missouri at the age of three. There, despite being immersed in the rich blues and
jazz traditions of his neighborhood, the 18th and Vine District, it was not the solos of Charlie
Parker, but the impressionist compositions of Franz Liszt that sparked his interest in the piano at
the age of 14.
He began studying jazz at the Paseo Academy of Performing Arts, where he first caught the
attention of his future mentor, the legendary saxophonist, Bobby Watson. O’Neal later went on to
study at the Manhattan School of Music where he became the protégé of the jazz piano great
Andrew Hill. Andrew Hill (himself a former student of the 20th century composer Paul
Hindemith) majorly influenced Harold’s current compositions, “from him I learned the
importance of letting things develop naturally and being able to find the middle ground
anywhere... of feeling free to push the envelope structurally and rhythmically, but being able to
maintain the melody and the feeling of being ‘in time’ while doing this.”
O’Neal has toured extensively throughout the world and has performed and recorded with artists
such as: Greg Osby, Jeff “Tain” Watts, Roy Hargrove, Avishai Cohen, Bobby Watson, Carmen
Lundy, Nicholas Payton, Wynton Marsalis, Ski Beatz, Murs, and Jerry Wonda. Last June, he had
the honor of playing for Amnesty International and Bono’s Electric Burma concert, celebrating
Burmese activist Aung Sang Su Kyi, where he performed with Lupe Fiasco, Angelique Kidjo,
Bob Geldof, Damien Rice, and U2.
Harold O’Neal has two records available through Smalls Recordings (Whirling Mantis and
Marvelous Fantasy) that have each garnered great critical acclaim in the international press. Ben
Ratliff of the New York Times has stated Marvelous Fantasy, “the strange and gorgeous whole of
it, sits somewhere between Ravel’s ‘Miroirs’ and Duke Ellington’s great 1953 album Piano
Reflections...the album is a piece of work that seems to be out there on its own. I have an idea
where the music comes from, but I’m not hearing it anywhere else.” He has been profiled on
NPR All Things Considered, NPR Studio 360, and featured in Downbeat and Jazz Times.
He is currently working on a second solo piano album that will be released on EMI imprint,
Bluroc Records.

Advanced tickets to this event are sold out. We will have a limited amount of admissions available at the box office when doors open at 6:00 on the night of the show. All admissions at the door will be first come first serve, one ticket per customer, with no re entry. $15 at the door, cash only.